Stop The Witchhunt of Labour Activists

Labour activists need to organise now to stop the witch-hunt of the Left.

The Labour Left is under attack from the Right in the Party, and from the Tory Media.  In the 1970's and 1980's, the last time the Left was in the ascendant, the secret state also had thousands of agents provocateurs operating inside the Labour Movement.  In recent years the activities of some of them have been exposed, as it was shown that a number of undercover police, even formed long-term relationships with members of various protest groups, even leading to some of them getting pregnant.  But, even in the 1980's, it was known that the police had over 200 paid agents working at or near the top of the trades unions and Labour Party.  They were used extensively during the 1984-5 Miners Strike.  It has been suggested that some supposedly far left groups of the time such as the RCP, whose members today have morphed into the right-wing Institute of Ideas, were actually established by the secret services for such purposes.

Either way, you do not have to be a conspiracy theorist to think that the secret services and their allies will be actively involved in infiltrating sections of the left too, in order to sow confusion, gather data, and act as agents provocateurs.  In the 1980's, Gaddafi's regime financed the WRP, and some of its front organisations.  We have seen today that Putin has financed various groups and activities, as well as Trump's allies via Steve Bannon, and these are also allies of Netanyahu's corrupt Bonapartist regime in Israel, which has also been shown to be prepared to throw large amounts of money around to finance groups and individuals to act as its foreign agents.

Indeed, all the more does this illustrate why Labour activists should run a million miles from placing faith in any individual charismatic leaders, and indeed from all of the tiny opaque, conspiratorial sects, and should instead focus on ensuring the greatest transparency, and self-reliance possible, which is only possible if we build real, effective, direct democratic structures inside the labour movement.  

Immediately, as the witch-hunters turn their attention to attacking Corbyn's close allies like Williamson, we should demand that such activities cease, and we should demand that any disciplinary bodies be directly elected by and from the rank and file of the party.